2026-10-26 · Places & Experiences
Chiatura: four cable car lines for fifty tetri, and no paper tickets
Chiatura's replacement cable car network opened in September 2021: four two-way lines built by the French manufacturer Poma, running to almost 3,500 metres in total, in enclosed gondolas seating eight to ten. A one-way ride costs 50 tetri, children under six go free, and paper tickets are gone — you tap a Tbilisi MetroMoney card or a bank card. The lines run daily from 8am to 10pm. The travel writer Emily Lush, who covers the town in detail, rates Sanatorium and Naguti as the two to ride if you only ride one.
Four lines, and which one to pick
The four lines are Sanatorium at 862 metres, Mukhadze at 640, Lezhubani at 845 and Naguti at 1,081, the longest. Each has between two and four support towers. Mukhadze runs over the railway station and Lezhubani passes above an old station near the market, which is the kind of detail that makes a two-minute ride worth taking twice. The recommendation from the writer who knows the town best is Sanatorium for being the highest with the views, or Naguti for length.
Paying is the part that catches people out
Fifty tetri a ride is close to nothing, but there is no ticket window taking cash for a paper ticket any more. You tap a white Tbilisi MetroMoney card or a debit card at the gate. If you are arriving without either, MetroMoney cards are sold at the desk under the Central Station building. Children under six travel free. The lines run from 8am to 10pm every day, which is generous for a town this size.
Getting there without a car
From Kutaisi, marshrutkas leave the Central Bus Station roughly hourly between 8am and 4pm, cost 10 GEL and take about two hours with a stop in Zestafoni. There is also one daily train from Kutaisi I at 5:50am, about three and a half hours for 50 tetri, but it does not run in winter. A private round-trip transfer through GoTrip starts at 130 GEL per car. From Tbilisi, vans leave Didube hourly from 7am to 7pm for around 20 GEL, taking two and a half to three and a half hours.
What you are not going to see
The famous rusting Soviet cabins are not what you ride now. The old network is classed as endangered heritage, and the writer is honest that the town "will never be exactly the same again", while arguing it has not lost its appeal and that the new system is easier and safer for the people who live there. Come for a working mountain town with an unusual way of getting about, and the industrial relics you do find will be a bonus rather than the point.
#chiatura #imereti #cable-cars #day-trip
Written by us from the source linked above, not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures and rules change — confirm anything that matters before acting on it.
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